“You can go hide and run from it, or you can get up and face it and deal with it,” Jason Aldean says of recent photos of him flirting with a former American Idol contestant at a Hollywood bar. “And that’s kind of what we tried to do and just kind of move on.

The 35-year-old Aldean made the transition from country music star to mainstream celebrity when TMZ recently posted photos of him with Idol contestant Brittany Kerr. The celebrity gossip website was quick to point out that Kerr was not his wife.

He immediately responded with a written statement acknowledging, “The truth is that I screwed up. I had too much to drink, let the party get out of hand and acted inappropriately at a bar.” He emphasized that he left the bar alone and caught the bus to his next concert.

Still, Aldean acknowledges the incident has been a source of personal embarrassment.

“I think when it comes to all the things that have been going on lately, I mean, it’s just been a tough situation,” he said Monday (Oct. 8) during an interview with CMT Insider host Katie Cook.

“I know everybody’s kinda going to have their opinion, and for the people that know me and know what I’m about … the people that are standing by us and supporting us, all I’ve got to say to them is thanks,” he said. “I mean, I really appreciate it, and it’s just been a really unfortunate thing. Really embarrassing, I think, more than anything.”

Aldean and his wife, Jessica, have been married for 11 years and are the parents of two daughters.

“The main thing is that me and my family are OK, and everything’s good there,” Aldean said of the aftermath of the media attention created by the TMZ photos. “So I think it’s been a tough deal. But I kind of said what I needed to say to them and, hopefully, they understand that. And the rest of it will be us dealing with it in private and trying to fix it.

“It’s good, though. So for everybody that stood by us, I appreciate it.”

Aldean’s new album, Night Train, will be released Oct. 16. He resumes his My Kinda Party tour on Oct. 25 in San Antonio.